Re: Expensive Small Aperture Refractor?

Shneor wrote: 
Visually speaking, small, high quality refractors are great if you
don't mind not being able to view 80% of what you can se, for example,
with an 18". People with small refractors spend time splitrting double
stare, and view planets a lot. They use averted vision to view many
NGCs and ICs and are lucky if they can spot many of these under the
best conditions. Many of these they won't be able to view at all.


As far as imaging in concerned, you'll get better images from an 11"
SCT than from a 5" APO. The SCT is probably a bit cheaper, too. Small
APOs are what I like to call "vanity scopes", no different from the
Questars.

I guess a smapp APO is like a Porsche. Not very practical, but a real
flashy example of conspicuous consumption.

Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman


With my normal sized car, I think I'd rather deal with a 5" apo refractor than an 11" SCT.

Here's a page with various images taken with various apo refractors ranging from 80 to 254mm:

<http://www.tmboptical.com/itemsGrid.asp?cat_id=16>




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